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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23192203">what day is it?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlNiCa/pseuds/AlNiCa'>AlNiCa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Happy Birthday Shiro (Voltron), Surprise Party, Yes he loves gummy worms, allura is alive, not s8 compliant, post-VLD</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:20:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,699</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23192203</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlNiCa/pseuds/AlNiCa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Where Shiro spends his day looking for his friends, only to find out they've been planning something without him realizing.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Shiro Birthday Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what day is it?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandom_Trash_15/gifts">Fandom_Trash_15</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My pinch-hit gift to Fandom_Trash_15 for the 2020 VLD Shiro Birthday Exchange! I hope you enjoy &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shiro rubbed his sleep-crusted eyes as he shuffled down the halls of the Atlas in search of the two who fell asleep on his couch and carpet the night before who’d promised him pancakes for breakfast. He normally wouldn’t be comfortable wandering around in an oversized sweatshirt and leggings but they were currently parked on Earth so the ship was mostly vacant aside from her more permanent residents. </p>
<p>He waved to Rizavi and Kinkade playing Mario Kart in one of the common rooms (frowning when he saw Lance wasn’t with them), noticed Hunk wasn’t in the kitchen cooking breakfast like he usually was, saw Keith wasn’t in the gym for his morning run, and eventually made his way to Pidge and Matt’s personal lab on one of the lower levels in hopes of some answers. </p>
<p>The door softly whooshed open as he got near and he stepped into the heavily lemon-scented room, dimly lit to Pidge’s liking. Though he was surprised to see the room was lacking Pidge AND Matt once he checked behind every random wall of boxes they insisted were important enough to keep. </p>
<p>He pouted, <em> Where could everyone be? </em> He didn’t have any plans that day with anyone in particular but he was sure he would’ve remembered if they said they were all going somewhere. </p>
<p>He shrugged as he yanked the hood of his sweatshirt up, pulled and tied the strings, and shuffled back to where he came. If no one was on the ship and he had a free day with no scheduled meetings he was going to at least take advantage of being able to watch one of his favorite rom-coms without anyone judging. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>__________________________________</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> 2 days earlier </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Lance was quickly tapping on his datapad where he was perched on top of a box near Keith as he worked on fixing up a hoverbike.  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Hey Keith?” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Keith poked his head up from around the bike, a lock of hair falling into his face as he nodded in response.  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “When’s your birthday?” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> He raised an eyebrow at the question but decided he didn’t need to know, “October 23rd.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Hm, good. A Scorpio.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Scorpio?” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Yeah, I’ve been looking up everyone’s signs and charts since Rizavi started talking to me about astrology. I never used to believe in it, and it makes even less sense since we’ve been to space, but I’ve found it quite revealing.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Keith stood up and chuckled, “Oh yeah? What’s it say about Scorpio’s?” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Well, it says here some of your strengths are that you’re resourceful..” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “True.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Brave..” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Keith smirked, “Also true.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Stubborn..” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Keith frowned and grunted as he picked up a different wrench. Lance laughed, “Come on, you know that one’s true.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Keith waved him off, “Yeah, yeah.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Lance hummed as he went back to the landing page, “Shiro’s birthday is in February, right?” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “February 29th.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Ah yes, a Pisces. He does make sense as a water sign.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Lance paused his scrolling.  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Wait. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> He pulled up his calendar.  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Shit. “SHIT!”  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Fuck!” Keith yelled out as he banged his head standing up, “What’s wrong?” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “That’s in two days.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Keith looked at him, horrified.  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> You’d think they were bad friends for not knowing Shiro’s birthday was so close but truth be told, their entire team stopped paying attention to what day it was when they were in space. He doesn’t remember the last time any of them celebrated a birthday and they highly doubted Shiro even knew what year it was. The only time that mattered was what time they needed to be in meetings. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> But after everything they’d been through, celebrating another year of life seemed more important than it used to be. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Lance jumped up, “We got to plan.” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Keith scrambled to find something to wipe his greasy hands on as he nodded furiously, hilariously looking like he was in panic-induced auto-pilot, “Yeah. Fuck. Got to plan.”  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> ___________________________________ </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Shiro stretched on his oversized couch, scratching his belly button as his sweatshirt rode up. He’d just finished his second rom-com of the day and his third bowl of cereal when he picked up his phone to check for messages for the ninth time this hour. Frowning again when he saw his home screen was blank, he flopped back down and sighed. </p>
<p>He’d been trying to figure out where everyone was all morning. He had access to their schedules but they were empty. He texted their group chat but got no response. He even tried calling Keith. Keith ALWAYS answered his calls. </p>
<p>It wasn’t like any of his friends to ghost him like this and it, unfortunately, reminded him of a time when he only had Adam and a handful of friends who felt more like acquaintances. It got better once he met Keith, but feeling alone wasn’t something he was good at dealing with. </p>
<p>After a couple more minutes of moping he decided he’d run into town to pick up some snacks, hoping to run into one of his MIA friends while doing so. He hopped up, pulled on a pair of jeans and a slightly wrinkled t-shirt and made his way to where his bike was parked. </p>
<p>The air was cool that day and he felt lucky that he stuffed a jacket in the side compartment last time he went for a ride. He wove through cars taking their sweet time and eventually pulled into the small lot of his favorite convenience store. </p>
<p>Shiro waved to the clerk in the mostly empty store as he zeroed in on his favorite snacks - Takis, Mountain Dew, and sour gummy worms. Hunk would absolutely scold him later for his poor choices but now that his body wasn’t unraveling at the seems he liked to partake in the more trash-like delicacies life had to offer from time to time. </p>
<p>He was finishing up paying when he saw a familiar redhead rushing into the store out of the corner of his eye. “Pidge?”</p>
<p>The person in question froze in place, slowly turning her head as if caught in the act, “Shiro. Uh. Hello!” She tried to act natural but Shiro learned very quickly that the Holts have a signature ‘I’m trying to hide something face’ and she was currently sporting it. </p>
<p>He tried to play it cool, part of him thinking the situation was funny and part of him still a little sad all of his friends were avoiding him, “What are you up to? I haven’t been able to find you all day.”</p>
<p>“Uhm. I uh. Well.”</p>
<p>Shiro raised an eyebrow, “Are you okay, Pidge?”</p>
<p>“Psh, yeah of course I’m fine. Just. Ya know. Picking up some.. Uh. Cheetos. For Lance. Lance wanted Cheetos.”</p>
<p>Shiro scrunched his face in confusion at that. Lance? But he hated Cheetos?</p>
<p>“You sure it was Cheetos?”</p>
<p>Realization dawned on Pidge, “Oh! Shoot you’re right. I meant the Cheetos are for Keith. Silly me. Haha.” </p>
<p>Pidge slowly backed away down the aisle and Shiro decided that was his cue to leave. </p>
<p>How weird. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>____________________________________</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That night Shiro had fewer answers and more confusion than what he woke up with. Not only did he have that strange encounter with Pidge at the store, he also had a profusely sweaty Hunk practically run away from him in the hanger, Allura seemed to be trying to distract him near the bathrooms on Level 3 as he nearly missed Lance and Keith running through the hall behind him, and Matt straight up tried to pretend he was blending into the wall in the laundry room. </p>
<p>Shiro was now in the dining hall munching on a sad sandwich trying to figure out any reason why his friends might be acting so weird when he suddenly received a text from Lance saying there was an emergency in Kitchen D that needed his assistance ASAP. Knowing who Lance was as a person he bolted from his seat, nearly choked on his sandwich as he scrambled to toss his tray on the garbage, and hustled his way down the 4 floors to the kitchen. </p>
<p>With his link to Atlas he was able to bypass a couple of usually locked doors and get down to the kitchen in no time, but abruptly stopped when he entered a room that was pitch black and completely silent. </p>
<p>“Uh, hello? Lance?” He called out as he patted the wall to switch on the lights. He was blinded for a moment as the room became visible. </p>
<p>“SURPRISE!!!!!” </p>
<p>Shiro jumped back at the roaring greeting, almost banging his head against the door that’d shut behind him. </p>
<p>In front of him stood all of his friends. Hunk was holding up a cake (of course) decorated in purple frosting, Pidge was on Matt’s back to hold up the partially falling down streamers and giant “It’s a Boy!” sign, Allura and Lance were obnoxiously blowing rainbow air horns while Keith stood next to Hunk gingerly holding a small, wrapped box. </p>
<p>Shiro was stunned. His mouth struggled to make words as he continued to process everything that was going on around him.</p>
<p>“Wha-what? What’s going on? What’s the surprise for?”</p>
<p>“Your birthday!!!” Lance yelled as he blew the air horn again. </p>
<p>“My… birthday?”</p>
<p>“Yeah Shiro, I know we all haven’t really celebrated in some years but we wanted to make your 32nd one special,” Keith added.</p>
<p>His 32nd? He was… he was 32? </p>
<p>His eyes began to burn as he struggled to swallow down the emotion bubbling up in his throat. He couldn’t tell if it was from how loved he felt seeing all the trouble his friends went through for him, or the fact that a minimum of 12 doctors told him he wouldn’t make it past 30. </p>
<p>“Oh no, oh no he’s crying.” He heard Hunk say before his friends rushed forwards to embrace him in the universe’s most ridiculous group hug. </p>
<p>At this point, they all knew what he went through growing up. Along the way, they all ended up sharing more of themselves than they originally intended, but that’s what kept them close and kept them sane. </p>
<p>He smiled into the embrace, soaked up the chorus of “Happy Birthday’s” and “I love you’s,” and laughed at his past self for ever thinking he was alone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you need something tagged please feel free to let me know!</p>
<p>Commenting can be hard and requires a lot of energy, any type of emoji or key smash works too thank you ily</p>
<p>Come say hi!<br/>Twitter: AlNiCa_<br/>Pillowfort: alnica</p></blockquote></div></div>
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